The Guvnor
13th Jan 2002, 15:42
From today's Sunday Times. Given the number of anti-aviation pressure groups in the UK, this one is well worth everyone's support.
[quote]Labour baroness to run air shake-up
DOMINIC O’CONNELL
BARONESS DEAN, a leading Labour peer and close ally of Tony Blair, is to chair a new broad-based pressure group to lobby for new aviation infrastructure in Britain.
Dean’s appointment will be announced tomorrow at the launch of the lobby group, Freedom to Fly. Business and trade-union leaders will pledge their support to the campaign.
They include: Digby Jones, director-general of the CBI; Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union; Rod Eddington, chief executive of British Airways; Sir Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Atlantic; and Sir Ken Jackson, joint general secretary of Amicus.
Joe Irvin, a former special adviser to John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, will be the campaign’s director. The group is understood to have raised about £500,000 in a bid to counter the efforts of environmental groups opposed to the airport expansion.
The unveiling of Freedom to Fly signals the start of a fierce lobbying battle as the government prepares an aviation white paper to be released in the autumn.
The white paper will be the first British aviation policy statement since 1984, and will have to address the politically fraught question of the siting of a new runway in the southeast of England — a development that will be bitterly resisted by environmental and anti-noise groups.
Dean, a former head of the print union Sogat, said yesterday that Britain needed to plan future aviation development to avoid a repeat of railway infrastructure problems.
“The government’s own forecasts show that air travel will double in the next 20 years. Anyone using airports at the moment knows how crowded they are. We have a great example in the railways which shows what happens when we don’t plan ahead,” she said.
A thriving aviation industry was vital to support inward investment and tourism in Britain, Dean said. “This is not just about the airline industry, it is about the entire economy.”
Last year the government approved a fifth terminal at Heathrow after a protracted planning process that included a four-year public inquiry, the longest held in Britain. The new terminal will, however, allow only marginal increases in the airport’s total capacity.
The Strategic Aviation Special Interest Group, a consortium of 65 local authorities, has forecast that if government predictions for traffic growth in the southeast were correct, the region would need another two or three runways by 2030.
Airline executives would prefer a new runway for the south-east to be built at Heathrow. This would allow the airport to keep pace with the rapid growth of traffic at rival European hubs at Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
But a new runway at Heathrow, which is just 15 miles from central London, is generally regarded as too controversial. Instead, a new runway could be constructed at Gatwick or Stansted.
No matter where the runway is sited, it will face strident opposition.
The only recent runway project in the UK — a second strip at Manchester Airport, opened last year — was dogged by vociferous protests culminating in pitched battles between protestors and contractors.<hr></blockquote>
[quote]Labour baroness to run air shake-up
DOMINIC O’CONNELL
BARONESS DEAN, a leading Labour peer and close ally of Tony Blair, is to chair a new broad-based pressure group to lobby for new aviation infrastructure in Britain.
Dean’s appointment will be announced tomorrow at the launch of the lobby group, Freedom to Fly. Business and trade-union leaders will pledge their support to the campaign.
They include: Digby Jones, director-general of the CBI; Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers’ Union; Rod Eddington, chief executive of British Airways; Sir Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Atlantic; and Sir Ken Jackson, joint general secretary of Amicus.
Joe Irvin, a former special adviser to John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, will be the campaign’s director. The group is understood to have raised about £500,000 in a bid to counter the efforts of environmental groups opposed to the airport expansion.
The unveiling of Freedom to Fly signals the start of a fierce lobbying battle as the government prepares an aviation white paper to be released in the autumn.
The white paper will be the first British aviation policy statement since 1984, and will have to address the politically fraught question of the siting of a new runway in the southeast of England — a development that will be bitterly resisted by environmental and anti-noise groups.
Dean, a former head of the print union Sogat, said yesterday that Britain needed to plan future aviation development to avoid a repeat of railway infrastructure problems.
“The government’s own forecasts show that air travel will double in the next 20 years. Anyone using airports at the moment knows how crowded they are. We have a great example in the railways which shows what happens when we don’t plan ahead,” she said.
A thriving aviation industry was vital to support inward investment and tourism in Britain, Dean said. “This is not just about the airline industry, it is about the entire economy.”
Last year the government approved a fifth terminal at Heathrow after a protracted planning process that included a four-year public inquiry, the longest held in Britain. The new terminal will, however, allow only marginal increases in the airport’s total capacity.
The Strategic Aviation Special Interest Group, a consortium of 65 local authorities, has forecast that if government predictions for traffic growth in the southeast were correct, the region would need another two or three runways by 2030.
Airline executives would prefer a new runway for the south-east to be built at Heathrow. This would allow the airport to keep pace with the rapid growth of traffic at rival European hubs at Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
But a new runway at Heathrow, which is just 15 miles from central London, is generally regarded as too controversial. Instead, a new runway could be constructed at Gatwick or Stansted.
No matter where the runway is sited, it will face strident opposition.
The only recent runway project in the UK — a second strip at Manchester Airport, opened last year — was dogged by vociferous protests culminating in pitched battles between protestors and contractors.<hr></blockquote>